Rings of Power
by Alex Mcpherson
Summary: Red Rage, Yellow Fear, Blue Hope, Indigo Compassion. Green Will, Violet Love, Black Death and White Life. Only a selection of power rings. And unfortunately, or fortunately depending on one's perspective, Xander's got them all.


He looked up from his hands, the last thing he remembered seeing before the spell. Now, he looked around and saw that Angel was clutching his chest in pain, Buffy was... not blonde... and There were two Willows, who oddly enough looked different from each other.

He looked at his hands, and at the ring on his middle right finger. The symbol on it was essentially from every single ring he'd worn earlier, superimposed, one on another. And beneath the thick lines of the symbol, in small cracks, were a maelstrom of light in many colours.

"Xander?" Buffy asked, and looked at her own hand, and saw a blue ring. He mentally noted that it was rather apt. Buffy had... hope issues. She had no hope of ever living past 17. It also had an odd green tinge. As though she had been touched by the green of will, but not given a green power ring.

"Yeah?" He asked absently.

"Are you ripping off DC comics?"

"... I dont own DC Comics, Buff. Nor do I own you though how I wish the opposite was so..." He blinked then blushed. "Er... sorry."

He turned to the two willows, whom were eyeing up one another and the differences.

One wore the indigo ring of compassion, but it was mixed with yellow.

The other wore Red Rage and Violet Love... and looked a little older. AS though she should have been through college. She stood proud, sure of herself in a way that the younger looking willow wasn't.

Then he noticed that Angel wore a ring of Death, but it looked... dead.

he closed his eyes, and... felt inside.

He opened his eyes, and saw he wore a cloak of fog, with the light of red, yellow, blue, green, indigo, violet and white shining through. He felt compassion for the world, to save it. Hope that he could succeed, the rage against those who would destroy it, the fear of those he wishes to save, and the love for his friends... and the life in them all.  
And finally, the will to go ahead with the plan developing in his mind.

Of course, some demons interrupted the get together. a heady lot, and he ducked a blow for the head when buffy went down, and seeing a friend hurt, Older willow suddenly... changed. Her hair fanned out and turned deep red, maroon, with a purple light as she flung her hands out at the demon that struck Buffy, and the demon turned into red dust. Then she turned to Buffy, waved a hand, and the blood was absorbed back into her body, and she woke, no longer injured, Willow's love for her healing her.

Younger willow eeped in terror, her eyes glowed yellow, and then the oddest thing happened. The indigo took over, and she dove for buffy, and cold-cocked another demon while her older self was dusting the first one. Once Buffy was up, older willow healing her, Buffy had looked around in fear, only a yellow energy was pulled from her and into willow, who gave her a smile, before she eeped at another demon, which of course, Buffy took down.

Without the fear that had held her own hopes down, Buffy took centre stage and her slayer power was unleashed by her blue ring of hope... and she kicked ass.

Angel moved through the fight, and tapped his ring against the various demons that had died, and his ring seemed to charge... which he then used to point at another demon and it would just go 'puff'.

He didn't even have to do a thing, the others dealt with it quickly.

When it was over, Older Willow looked at him, and said, "Love and Rage, really, Xander? you gave me the two most defining emotions I had since..." She gulped, and looked at her younger self with sad eyes, who looked at her with confusion and compassion. "and her you gave compassion and fear?" she shook her head, and moved off, a quick pat on the shoulder followed by, "We're doomed."

"What's mine?" Buffy asked.

"Hope." Xander and Older Willow answered.

Buffy looked at older Willow, who explained, "There's many times when you've been without hope... or rather you have, but nothing to really let you use it. The green means that you will never be far from those with the will and desire to help you. Blue Lanterns gain power as a group. Something that Slayers have, until us, never really been part of. Slayers are pretty much a case of that. Without hope, they fall. But hope needs willpower."

"huh?"

"It's complicated." Xander simply said.

"And my hair?"

"The rings don't like the bleach. Bleach bad." Older Willow uttered with a small smile. "Bleach make Slayer Stupid. Stupid Slayers Sleep With Vampires."

"HEY! Angel's not..." She blinked. "... not that angel and I..."

Xander shuddered. "First... if you had, Eww. Second, if you do, still eww but nto as much since angel's angel, just no inner angelus now. All alive."

"Screwed up so many plans of the higher powers," Older Willow added, "but yeah. He's human."

"How can you tell?"

"... Well, the obvious would be the rings." Xander said.

Older willow shrugged. "Less obvious is that I know not due the ring, but because I'm a pretty bad ass wicca with omnipotent-like powers."

"I'd have said you saw him clutch his chest and felt body heat from him when he grazed you during the fight, and put two and two together, but that too." Xander commented.

"... That too." Willow blushed at being caught out.

"What's Angels?"

"The ring of Death." Younger Willow eeped, obviously scared at what that meant.

"No." Angel answered with a frown. "Not... quite. It's different than the comics..."

Everyone stared.

"What? You know I read a lot."

"... I thought you just read Anne Rice novels." Xander queried, "I mean, your shelves were full of them when I told you to man up back with the Master thing."

Angel blushed, and Buffy sighed at the reminder that though her beau was 'a man', in more ways than one now, he had been rather a coward before she died.

"So. DC guy, huh?" Xander asked.

"Prefer The Hulk comics, actually."

"Oh?" Xander blinked, "that because of your own former inner monster?"

"Yeah." Angel smiled.

The two walked off, discussing comics, and Buffy and Present Willow shared a look of surprise.

"Huh." Older willow merely stated.

"You dont look surprised." Buffy said, suspiciously.

"Hm? I am. See, Surprised face." Older Willow tried.

"Uh huh. I know that look, missy." Younger Willow pointed out. "Spill."

"... I thought he prefered the Batman comics, actually." Older said with a sheepish look. "I knew he had a collection, After he went a bit evil in a few years, one of those 'path to hell paved with good intentions' things, and he came back, Xander told him that he was confiscating his comic books in punishment." She giggled. "He was more horrified than when Vi pantsed Giles."

"Who did what?"

Xander and Angel, still hearing from the distance, shared looks and spoke as one, "Now that is one story we dont want to hear."

"And I'm taking your comics." Xander added. "You know, because you, and I quote, "Go a bit evil in a few years."

Angel sobbed at the thought.

**Authors note**

... Hmm. *sniffs drink* I'm sure I didn't put meth in there... and how the hell did I just work in my disclaimer into the story? Was posted to TTH first. Removed due to stupid rules. (and I'm not talking about 'spellcheck' or 'grammar' nazies. I'm talking about disclaimer nazis. FFS I'm posting it on a FANFIC site. I'm not making any money from this. If anything, I should be whining that I should be making money from it. Time spent and all that. oh, I know, copyright blablabla. But apparently, Lawyers have no sense of humour so Bobmin and all those on Fanficauthors dot net have to write legalise disclaimers should any decide to visit them for whatever reason (the only one would be to sue them for making money they aren't making. Like me.) You'll note that most of the stories I post here haven't got a damn disclaimer. Why? Because it's a fanfiction site. it says so in the web address.


End file.
